International Marketing
15th edition
Philip R. Cateora, Mary C. Gilly, and John L. Graham
Overview
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• The importance of culture to an international
marketer
• Definition and origins of culture
• The elements of culture
• The impact of cultural change and cultural
borrowing
• Strategies of planned and unplanned change
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Definitions and
Origins of Culture
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• Traditional definition of culture
– Culture is the sum of the values, rituals, symbols,
beliefs, and thought processes that are learned,
shared by a group of people, and transmitted
from generation to generation.
• Individuals learn culture in three ways
– Socialization (growing up)
– Acculturation (adjusting to a new culture)
– Application (decisions about consumption and
production)
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Origins, Elements,
and Consequences of Culture
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Exhibit 4.4
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Geography
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• Exercises a profound control
– Includes climate, topography, flora, fauna, and
microbiology
– Influenced history, technology, economics, social
institutions and way of thinking
• The ideas of Jared Diamond and Philip Parker
– Jared Diamond
• Historically innovations spread faster east to west
than north to south
– Philip Parker
• Reports strong correlations between latitude
(climate) and per capita GDP
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History
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• History - Impact of specific events can be seen
reflected in technology, social institutions, cultural
values, and even consumer behavior
– Tobacco was the original source of the Virginia
colony’s economic survival in the 1600s
– American values and institutions influenced by
Adam Smith’s book The Wealth of Nations
– Military conflicts in the Middle East brought
about new cola alternatives such as Mecca Cola,
Muslim Up, and Arab Cola.
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Social Institutions
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• School – the most important social institution
– Direct link between a nation’s literacy rate and its
economic development
– Difficult to communicate with a market when a
company must depend on symbols and pictures
• The media – it has replaced family time
• TV and the Internet
• American educational system produces a lower
percentage of college graduates than 12 other
countries including Russia, Japan, and France
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Social Institutions
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• Government - influences the thinking and
behaviors of adult citizens
– Propaganda through media
– Passage, promulgation, promotion, and
enforcement of laws
• Corporations - most innovations are introduced
to societies by companies
– Spread through media
– Change agents
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Elements of Culture (1 of 4)
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Values
Rituals
Symbols
Beliefs
Thought processes
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Elements of Culture (2 of 4)
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• Cultural values – Geert Hofstede
– Individualism/Collectivism Index
• Reflects the preference of behavior that promotes
one’s self interest
– Power Distance Index
• Measures the tolerance of social inequality
– Uncertainty Avoidance Index
• Measures the tolerance of uncertainty and
ambiguity
– Cultural Values and Consumer Behavior
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Hofstede’s Indexes
Language, and Linguistic Distance
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Exhibit 4.6
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Elements of Culture (3 of 4)
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• Rituals – patterns of behavior and interaction that are
learned and repeated
– Marriages , funerals, baptisms, graduations
• Symbols
– Language
• Linguistic distance – relationship between
language and international marketing
– Aesthetics as symbols
• Insensitivity to aesthetic values can offend, create a
negative impression, and, in general, render
marketing efforts ineffective or even damaging
Next
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Language
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• According to www.ethnologue.com:
– A total of 7,413 known living languages exist
in the world
– 311 being spoken in the U.S.; 297 in Mexico,
13 in Finland, and 241 in China
– EU has 20 official languages
– India alone has 452 known languages!
Back
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Elements of Culture (4 of 4)
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• Beliefs
– Superstitions play a large role in a society’s belief
system and therefore, to make light of superstitions in
other cultures can be an expensive mistake
– The number 13 in the western hemisphere is
considered unlucky, where as the number 8 in China
connotes “prosperity”
– The practice of “Feng Shui”
• Thought processes
– Difference in perception between the East and the
West
• Focus vs. big-picture
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Similarities – An Illusion
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• A common language does not guarantee a
similar interpretation of word or phrases
– Difference between British and American English
– http://www.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/americanb
ritish/index.html
• Just because something sells in one country
doesn’t mean it will sell in another
– Cultural differences among member of
European Union a product of centuries of
history
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